By Sunridge Gold,
Sunridge Gold Corp. (the “Company” or “Sunridge”) (sgc:TSX.V/SGCNF) is pleased to announce that the summary of the Social and Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA) report for the Company’s Asmara Project located in Eritrea has been submitted to the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
This begins the permitting process for application of the mining license for the Asmara Project which is expected to take nine to twelve months. In addition, other related documents such as the full SEIA appendices and the draft Social and Environmental Management Plan (SEMP) will be submitted to the Ministry in January and February 2014, respectively.
The SEIA document was prepared by the international consulting firm Knight Piesold Ltd. with input from a variety of international and national environmental and social specialist companies as well as Sunridge social and environmental staff.
The Company is also pleased to announce the employment of Mr. Chris Attwood, Operations Manager for the Asmara Project. Mr. Attwood is a mining engineer with over 10 years of experience the last 2 of which was as Mine Manager at the Bisha Mine, Eritrea. He will manage the mine operational activities as the project advances into construction and operations.
The Asmara Project feasibility study (the “Study”) was completed May 2013 and demonstrated that the mining of four of the six deposits that make up the Asmara Project (Emba Derho, Adi Nefas, Gupo Gold and Debarwa) and processing of the ore at a central location near the large Emba Derho deposit is economically robust with a net present value of $692 million (using a 10% discount rate) and with an internal rate of return of 34%.
The Study outlines a three-phase start-up mining operation which would initiate production in 2015 starting with high-grade copper and gold direct shipping ore production from the Debarwa deposit and heap-leaching of near surface gold, followed by supergene copper production, then zinc and copper at a full production rate of 4 million tonnes per year.
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